Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand mentioned his staff should discover one other gear towards France when it meets the reigning champions in an important Group D conflict on Saturday, having discovered itself behind the factors tally it will have wished at this stage.
The Danes have been held to a goalless draw with Tunisia on Tuesday whereas France crushed Australia 4-1 to go high of the group and will qualify for the final 16 with a sport to spare ought to it win towards Hjulmand’s aspect.
Denmark, who in 2002 beat France to finish its marketing campaign within the group stage, beat Les Blues twice within the Nations League this 12 months – 2-1 in Paris and 2-0 in Copenhagen – and Hjulmand backed them to earn a victory once more, regardless of their start-studded opponents being among the many match favourites.
“Tomorrow’s game is obviously an important one for us after the start we had. It’s an opponent who belongs at the very, very top of football. The quality and talent they have in France at the moment is spectacular,” Hjulmand advised reporters on Friday.
“The way they played (against Australia) was also a bit different than the two games we played against them. I have great respect for France, but I also know how strong we are. We’ve tested them a few times.
“Obviously this is a new tournament, a bigger tournament. But we know that if we play our very best, we have a chance of getting a good result, and that’s what we’re aiming for. To be able to do that, we have to take a big step forward in the quality from the first match.”
France goal man Olivier Giroud, 36, drew degree with Thierry Henry on 51 worldwide objectives after scoring twice towards Australia, and Hjulmand was cautious of the risk posed by the AC Milan ahead.
“It’s a pleasure to see more and more strikers at a late age using the experience in how to move in the box and how to be dangerous, have more calmness in the way they play and their position,” Hjulmand mentioned.
“He’s probably even better than he has been before… France have an unbelievable amount of top players.”
The World Cup has featured a number of marathon matches to date, with as many as seven or eight minutes of stoppage time repeatedly being added in both or each halves to make up for time misplaced to aim celebrations, substitutions, VAR checks and accidents.
The elevated deal with efficient taking part in time was not introduced prematurely by FIFA and Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen mentioned the gamers have been caught off guard by the choice.
“It’s new to us, we didn’t know there was going to be so much added time,” Eriksen mentioned.
“We hadn’t heard about this and nobody said anything about it. We found out when we saw the first matches being played. This was something that could have been mentioned really in advance.”